Japan Day 18

Today was another day of shopping. I had been waiting this whole trip to visit Harajuku and Shibuya to get some new threads, and it happened today. First of all, though, we got seperated and lost looking for the right train. Tim had a map on his iPod, and it said Harajuku station was part of the Keio line, but that was on the Tokyo Metro. We took the Keiyo line on the JR and ended up going out near Yokohama. Once we got back to the right station, we hopped on the Yamanote line and then jumped off at Harajuku. It was crazy. It's hard to describe, but I got some photos. Just wall to wall people snatching up whatever caught their eye.

At first we were checking out some of the small local shops, but it was hard to browse and move around, so we took a quick break at Starbucks and then checked out H&M. Most of the stuff was the same as what H&M sells in North America, but there were a few items I had never noticed before. Once we were done there, we took off for Shibuya where we spent most of our day and evening. Shibuya was also pretty insane. People everywhere shopping. We got to see the famous Hachiko statue and the Scramble Crossing. I spent a good part of the evening taking photos. It was incredible. I also discovered that HMV still exists in Japan, and since I couldn't find everything I was looking for at Tower Records, I stopped in and grabbed a couple of CD's. After my stop at HMV I headed to 109-2 (there are two buildings named 109, one strictly for women's clothing, the other is mostly men's fashion) and bought some nice stuff at a store called Disrev. The staff was very nice and even gave me a free souvenir mug.

Once we had all met up again at the station, we headed back to Akihabara to transfer to the Tokyo Metro to get back to the hotel. However, once we stopped off, Tim and Patrick wanted to get some ramen. Since I was sick of ramen and still kind of full from lunch, I went and explored Akiba's Book Off. Ended up buying more CD's, but they were used so they were also very inexpensive. Once we all met up again, we caught the metro back to the hotel we were staying in. It's called Sakura Hotel and comes recommended by the Lonely Planet guide, but I don't find it to be all that great. As a plus, it doesn't have a curfew, but the place is pretty seedy. The location is also inconvenient for JR pass holders. In any case, another day of adventures awaits me tomorrow.